Share your passion with your kids, as early as you can!

This is our sons first set of wheels, at four.  The driving suit is a 2001 official Ferrari suit that celebrates Michael Schumacher F1 season.  The rip in the knee makes it a keeper.

It reflects the fact that my son did in fact have an off in his safety gear.

Now he is 14 and get's to drive the above.  The kids drive as the first group on Sunday and the track is a bit dusty.  This is from last weekend at the parking lot at the Santa Anita Race Track.

Again, on his first lap as a passenger in my ES Miata, at 12, his first comment on my lap was "Dad, you are slow".

Still makes me smile to think of that. 

I have a 16 yo son and a 14 yo son that are experiencing the world of wrenching cheap cars for profit.   

Greasy hands and smiles for the win.

My 17 year old is my co-driver.  He's not as fast as his old man yet but it's coming, he'll be beating me in a couple of years.

DD#1 has been autocrossing with me since she could drive alone.  Now she has an ES 1999 Miata she bought herself.  She often leads the novice course walk and instructs, especially for female rookies.

Did that this past weekend with the help of the community at GRM.  Hopefully she's driving something and co-driving as soon as she can.

I've posted this before, my 15 year old is taking Auto Shop 101 in high school later this year and wants to come run LeMons with me.  He's just learning to pick up a wrench, but he's very excited.  His 12 year old brother has moderate-at-best interest in turning wrenches, but is always begging me to take him karting at the local indoor track.  He's tall enough to run the adult karts and is really fast for a 12 year old.  My 15 year olds' two existing "projects"....

Kid#3 got a knee down for the first time last weekend. She's pretty rad for a middle schooler. 

I've exposed all of my kids to motorsports. My oldest autocrossed a couple of times when she got her permit. #2 rallycrossed a kart for a couple seasons and has autocrossed a half dozen times. They enjoyed it, but not enough to really get into it, which is ok. Kid#3 seems like she's really into it with bikes. 

In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :

That's awesome, and I give you a ton of credit.  You're a much braver parent than I am.  As much as I love cars and racing, I'm afraid of motorized things with two wheels.  I won't get on them and refuse to let my kids.  Outside of things like indoor go karts, if it's got an engine I want to be fully strapped in with a safety structure or cage around me.  I happily let my boys and daughter play football and/or lacrosse, in fact my younger son is a goalie...and they wear no pads on their limbs..., but I won't put them on two wheels.  Just my own hang up I guess.  I know that I'd love the fun of motorcycles, but doing what I do for a living I simply can't bring myself to get on one. 

Cant wait to get my son into some fun motorsports events. Hope to get him started in R/C racing and then transition to some go-karts and autocross.

she started at 2

Rallycross at Bitzers. He thought it was awesome.

Insert "their mother doesn't let them share in my hobbies" comment here. [insert multiple crying sad faces]

That was my first at 2... Miatas are always their favorites since they can sit "up front", and of course, "the roof comes off." :)

My kids followed me into bmx and love my old car but so far have zero interest in picking up a wrench. Too be fair they are only 11. They both want to go to the dragstrip next summer again. Maybe even take the zephyr this time 

This is awesome. Kids are a few years out for me but I hope that they enjoy this stuff as much as I do! 

I missed Santa Anita this last weekend but I’m hoping they schedule another one before the year is over. Fontana is a good bit further from me. 

My oldest (3) loves my FoRS and Grandpa's Miata. She's got her own tools and she runs and gets them when I get my tools out to work on something.  The last thing we did was to assemble some shoe trees.

Her younger brother is only 1, but already loves going to garage with me and whenever the door is open to the garage we have to pull him away to close it.

I'm actively working on making the garage more organized, cleaner and safer for everyone so I can spend more time out there with the kids.  I'm also planning on at least one day a week at my dad's shop where we have more room nd a bunch more tools to use.

This spring I'll be able to hit some more events and I can bring one or more along to watch.

Dad already said he's leaving the Miata to her, which is great and I'll make sure she gets it, if she wants it.

This weekend though, I need to build another Toddler Tower because they are fighting over the first one I built and someone is going end up thrown out of it sooner rather than later.

Here's my 5 year old playing Forza. He loves "the driving game" and can't wait to get into a kart.

Love all the photos of the next generation of gearheads.  You know, the generation that supposedly doesn't care about cars.  There are some great parents on this board.

I'm a little jealous though.  My son is 16 and even though I immersed him in motorsports from an early age...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXYH_3RNVPg

...it didn't take.  He loves soccer instead.  And with time and a lot of hard work, he became very good and I put motorsports on hold while carting (not karting, sadly) him all over the state for club ball.  He plays for his HS varsity team now and I'm proud as hell of him...but sometimes I catch myself wishing he cared about wrenching and racing with his old man.

In reply to Klayfish :

The potential for injury is a struggle for sure. My wife is on board for now, but one of the guys on our endurance team broke his leg the other day riding the Grom and that has her a bit worried. Kid#3 did have her first off last night when she ran a corner wide and was still turning when she reached the dirt. Data says she was going a bit under 20mph when it folded and she popped right back up, picked up the bike, kicked it over and did two more laps before coming it. She'll eventually have a higher speed off but she said this one wasn't a big deal. 

I was talking to a kart dad when I was there. His son is getting things set up for nationals in Las Vegas in a few weeks. He's VERY fast having gotten to the point where regional events are basically practice and he's planning a test for a Formula 4 seat for next year. They've sold their house in Austin and are moving to Houston because the tracks and team opportunities over here are better. His data coach is coming to work with him at the next race. The whole interaction made me feel very laid back and normal. 

In reply to bluebarchetta :

I think the main thing is for kids to have passion about SOMETHING. It's fun when it's the same thing that we love, but passion and drive for anything is worthy and adds value to their lives. 

I'm not gonna post a picture of my son chasing wild wimmen.

No kids, but I do my best to get the youth into cars by blipping my throttle when I can (my interest got started when I heard a V6 Camaro do a kickdown shift after turning left at an intersection)

When our youngest is ready to graduate from being the real SWMBO of the house to Little Shop-Helper-In-Training, her older sister will finally get her promotion to Big Shop-Helper-In-Training.

It's unfortunate for She-Who-Enables-Every-Thing-Automotive that, while both have shown various signs of interest in the automotive arts (among other things), thus far neither has taken much of an interest in her passion for sleeping.

I love this thread. My 2 year old daughter likes "helping" in the garage but I wonder what it will be like when she is a little older and has friends. My wife doesn't have any interest or passion for Motorsports and loves all things Disney. As such, I'm prepared to lose the battle in the earlier years.    

About a decade ago, this was Kazoo Jr.'s first autox as a passenger.  

And here he is doing his best to beat his old man:

So far, he's come up just a bit short, but he'll definitely beat me sometime next year.